Not a walk in the park
by Takaluca
Summary: Lana, alongside Lori, took Charles for a walk. Problem is, they find an obstacle in their way, in a form of a kid who thinks she owns everything, and her mother that thinks she's right


One day on a nice Saturday afternoon, the Loud kids were enjoying the weekend chilling on the couch in the living room. Nothing too exciting about that. Sure, for an outsider, it could look like the family decided to destroy each other, but that was just their way of being - Loud.

As usual, Lori was on her cell phone. Texting Bobby, making sure she and Carol were the ones with most likes on their photo, basically relaxing staring at the small device. Suddenly, she felt something weird around her legs. She took a glance away from the phone, and looked down to see it was Charles, the family dog. He was barking sadly, and apparently hyperactive.

She nudged Lana, who was leaning against her trying to escape Lola's attempts to put makeup on her face. "Lana, go walk Charles before he pees on the carpet again." Lori said, pointing to the dog, before going back to her phone.

Lana had a smile on her face, immediately hopped off the couch, successfully avoiding the last attempt of Lola to apply any substance she didn't like, and went to grab the collar and leash. She always liked to take care of the family pets, after all. Charles followed and let her put both on him. They came back, primed and ready and they stood near the front door for a few seconds.

Lori felt someone was looking, so she faced up noticing they hadn't left yet. "What are you waiting for?"

"For you." Lana said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Usually when I walk Charles, someone else comes along with me so that I'm not out alone. Mom and dad say I'm too young."

"Oh yeah… I forgot. _Sigh, _Alright, give me one second." Lori quickly typed out a message to Bobby and put her phone in the pocket of her cargo shorts before getting up and joining her tomboyish little sister and the dog. She wasn't exactly a fan of having to take her siblings outside, but that was beyond the matter of wanting. The parents insisted, after all, security. That didn't mean she had to be exactly happy about it.

The two of them left the house, the sun almost blinding the oldest sister for a second. After she adjusted to the bright, they began the walk. Their destination, most likely, was the park. There, Charles could just run free, and Lana liked to play with him...sometimes like she was from the dog's species. Unsurprising since sometimes she acted like a dog at other times, too. Sharing the doghouse, barking, eating dog biscuits… and other things that are best not mentioned. But that literally never caused a problem for the six year old, so they just allowed her to do it...at least for now.

It was a pretty leisure walk throughout the block, only stopping for a few seconds while Charles went off to sniff or mark something. As much as Lori would rather be on her phone, she had to admit to herself that it was nice getting a breath of fresh air. And Lana...well, she seemed to enjoy most things regarding the outside.

Halfway through their way to the park, Lori spotted a perfume store. She had planned a nice date with Bobby for later at night and had run out of the perfume she liked. Even if she didn't brought her purse, which had her wallet, she reached her cellphone case. 'Always have some money on you' her parents said. Problem was, though, there was a sign that said "No Pets Allowed." Well, she wouldn't take _that _long in there, would she?

"Hey Lana, I need to go check something out in that store." Lori said and pointed to the aforementioned shop. "Just stay out here for a minute or two, I promise I won't take too long. I don't think anything will happen, but if you need me, just give me a holler."

"Aww man… alright." Lana sighed. At least she wouldn't have to come into the perfume shop herself. Still, waiting was boring and she was really looking forward to getting to the park. She really liked the park. Soft grass, the warm sun, the open fields, the mud...she especially liked that last one. As they stopped, Charles apparently got a bit agitated.

"Hey, calm down boy, we'll be at the park in no time." She said, cuddling the dog, which helped it calm down. There hasn't been one pet Lana has met that didn't like her. Not that she was the one who sees thousands of pets, but she has her fair share of experience.

"PUPPY!" She heard a shout from behind her. She looked around and saw a little blond girl, maybe around Lisa's age, running towards her and the dog. She had a white short dress with sandals on her feet. With a tiara on her head, she would be a younger version of Lola.

"Uhh…"

An older woman, who Lana assumed was the girl's mother, walked over to them as well. She didn't seem much out of ordinary. Black dress, blond hair, high heels. It wasn't like her mother, but she had seen people like that before.

"Oh, he is just adorable! Do you mind if my daughter pets him? She really loves dogs." The woman asked.

Lana was hesitant, as she had always been told not to talk to strangers. Then again, hey, what we're gonna try to do, take her dog? Plus, she loved animals, who would she be if she forbade others from enjoying their company too?

"Oh, sure, go ahead." She said, and the girl's smile went even bigger, before she went to the pet. Charles let her pet his coat and panted happily. Only problem is, after a few seconds, the girl either forgot how to pet in a blink of an eye, or she forgot to be careful, as she pulled the ear of the dog. Or maybe she just found it funny, it could be that too. Thing is, Charles didn't like it, as he barked in pain, and Lana had to take her hands off of the dog.

"Did you just touch my daughter?" The mother of the kid asked.

"Yeah, and she hurt my dog!" Lana replied. She managed to calm herself down and turned to the younger girl. "Please be more careful, he doesn't like stuff like that."

The girl tried to approach again, but Charles didn't seem so receptive this time, as he began growling, and eventually barking. That obviously scared the little girl, as she ran and pulled the mother's dress down to call her attention.

"Mom, tell the girl to not make the puppy mean!"

"You walk out here with an untrained and aggressive dog? You know how dangerous it is?"

"He is perfectly trained, sir- err, I mean ma'am, sorry about that. I should know since I'm the one who trained him. And he's not mean or aggressive, he just doesn't want his ears pulled again."

"Well, obviously he's not trained well enough. You know, my husband is a dog trainer, he could teach it to be more obedient."

"My dog is not an _it,_ he's a _he. _And I _appreciate _the offer, but I think I've managed him well enough. He's really a good dog, but he's not going to just sit there and let someone hurt him. And neither will I." Lana was now starting to get more annoyed and angry, but still tried to calmly explain.

"My daughter did nothing to hurt the dog. She's a great girl, does excellent on school, and is very obedient, so just let her play how she wants. The dog would behave so much better with us. She always wanted a puppy."

Lana pinched the bridge of her nose. How was she not getting through to her?! "Did you not see how she pulled his ear, and he was clearly in pain? I definitely saw it, and-" Wait a minute, what did she just say…? "Wait, excuse me?"

"Yeah, why don't just give us the dog? I mean, it's not like you take enough care of it, looking how it behaves. My husband would teach everything he knows, and my daughter will play every day."

Lana nervously chuckled, hoping that the lady was joking. At this point, though, she couldn't know for sure. "Heh, y-you're joking, right? Please tell me you're kidding."

"No, I am completely serious. So just c'mon, give me the leash, and I'm sure he will be much better."

The animal-lover took a few steps back and gripped the handle of the leash tightly, using her body to protect Charles. "N-no, he's my dog… my _family's _dog, and we don't plan on ever giving him away, especially not to someone who wouldn't be nice to him." She asserted, a hint of anger seeping through her already gravelly voice. Though this time, to join the mixture there was an addition of fright.

"I'm already late, girl, just give the dog to my daughter. You obviously don't care enough for it anyway, seeing its behavior!" She exclaimed, and quickly reached for the leash. Not one second after, the daughter joined in.

Lana instinctively leapt to the side and smacked their hands away. "I said _NO!" _She barked.

She bared her teeth and let out a low growl, in a similar fashion to Charles. She also had longer canine teeth than the average person did, and they jutted out a little bit, adding to the intimidation factor. Which she didn't like to use often, but when an animal's well-being, especially one that she was in care of, was being put at risk, well...

Problem was, the two didn't seem intimidated at all, in fact, her acts seemed only to get the two women angrier. They showed their teeth, even if it wasn't scary. They fought for the leash, until the mother noticed a better strategy while the daughter was distracting Lana: go for the dog itself.

So, she reached over the girl, picked up the dog, and quickly removed the leash. Even if all of Lana's anger was present, the woman was a force to be recon with, mostly due to the height and the fact she was an adult. That, and she was, for lack of better words, batshit insane.

The dog fought in her arms, as she began to walk backwards. Her daughter just turned and celebrated her mother's achievement, and then Lana noticed she was holding an empty leash, before being shoved back by the younger girl.

She shoved her back out of the way and chased after the crazy lady yelling at her. "GET BACK HERE WITH MY DOG!" Being an outdoorsy girl had its advantages, like being able to run fast for a long while. It still wasn't enough, though, and Charles's dognapper stayed a considerable length away. The ball-capped girl realized that she was starting to get fatigued and would have to stop soon lest she pass out from exhaustion. That's when she fell on her knees.

"Please, he's my dog. I found him, and adopted him."

"It's ours now. If you took better care of it, you wouldn't lose it."

"_He! _And I didn't lose him, _you _and your… _jerk _of a daughter took him from me!" Oh, there were many other words she could think of that she desperately wanted to say. Being six made it much harder for her to cuss up a storm and get away with it, though.

"Oh, I see, you're not only a bad dog trainer, but an uneducated girl as well. My daughter deserves it so much than you."

"YOU-" Lana leapt forward to deliver a punch in blind fury, but completely missed her mark and collapsed on the ground. She scraped her wrists and knuckles and could even smell copper. She had no time to pay attention to the pain or the blood, everything else being much too overwhelming to the tomboy. She felt some tears leak out and stream down her face. She hid her face with her cap and just stayed on the ground.

Meanwhile, Lori was paying for the products she had selected from the shelf. She turned around to check on Lana, as she knew she took more than a couple minutes (Bobby was so interesting sometimes, and the store had so many options), to witness a pair of unknown girls holding a familiar-looking dog and leash. Even more unnerving was that she couldn't see her little sister anywhere. No, wait, taking a closer look, she caught a glance of her red cap. She felt it in her guts something was wrong, though even someone who didn't have her older sister skills would be able to tell.

She ran over to them as quickly as she could to see what in the name of Savino was going on, even forgetting what she just paid for on the counter. She approached the older lady from behind, and touched her shoulder. The dog was still trying to set himself free, growling and wriggling in her grasp, but the mother ignored it before facing Lori.

"Excuse me, what is going on here?" Lori asked.

"Oh, nothing dear. That girl over there asked to pet our dog and hurt him. Now he's all stressed out, poor boy. Some people don't have any manners." The mother said. Lori felt such cold in the woman's voice, especially as she knew that wasn't the case.

Lana picked herself off the ground and tried to wipe the tears off her face with her bloodied hand. That didn't work out very well, and both her eye and her wounds stung. "N-No, she's lying, Lori! It's the other way around, that kid over there hurt him and they both stole him!" She shouted. More tears flowed as she realized that she definitely didn't look as tough as she had built her reputation to be. She couldn't help but feel utterly pathetic.

"Okay, I'll literally explain how thing are going to work, lady. You will return the dog, you will apologize to my sister, and _maybe_ I won't call the police."

The woman jabbed a finger in the middle of Lori's chest and started shouting again. "Well, maybe you should teach your sister to have better manners! This is OUR dog now, because SHE can't train him to not be aggressive! In fact, I can see it in her too, maybe it runs in the family!"

Even the little girl winced at that last statement, even if she couldn't quite understand it.

"Oh, wow, you're a bigger liar than I thought, if that was even possible. Now, will you return the dog, force me to pry him from your cold dead hands, or shall I ask the _cops_ to do so?"

The woman tried to make a getaway, but Lori wasn't having it. She grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her up to her face. She gave her the most terrifying death glare Lana had ever seen in her entire life. It was what she'd imagine to see if someone took her phone while she was talking to Bobby and threw it in the toilet. Which she heard had happened once, according to one of her high school stories; things did not end well for the culprit. Her older sister's icy blue eyes burned with pure, unadulterated fury and hatred. She used the moment of shock to snatch the dog and leash back, petting him a bit to calm him (and herself) down.

"I-I'm sorry, boy, I'm sorry you had to go through all that. It's okay now, I've got you…" She soothed, before facing mother. Lori soon took notice of Lana's actions, and released the mother's shirt.

"I hope you've learned a valuable lesson from this - _NEVER. MESS. WITH. ME. OR. MY SISTER. AGAIN!" _Lori roared and let go of the woman. "Now take your daughter with you, and get out of my sight!"

They did just as they were told and scrambled away. They noticed she walked at a rather quick speed, like a murderer was after them. And if they stayed a few more instances, that wouldn't be a lie.

"Mommy, I still want the dog!" The daughter said.

"It's not worth it, dear. Maybe next time we'll just go to a shelter or something. Those people are _crazy! They don't know how much you deserve it!_" The mother replied, unaware of her own hypocrisy. Lori saw them for a few seconds before she turned to Lana, who still had Charles in her hands, and a few wet spots in her face. Lori crouched to be at her size.

"You literally okay there, sis?" She asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. The dog licked her cheek, tickling a bit, but that didn't mean she wasn't feeling a lot of things.

"Ye-yeah, I'm fine…*_sniff_*...it's Charles I'm worried about, though." She set Charles back onto the ground and held the handle of the leash while she inspected her bloodied knuckles and wrists. The dog seemed happy to be with his owner again, as he barked happily towards her.

"Oh my God, Lana!" Lori took a closer look at Lana's hands, using hers to hold them to ease inspection. "What happened here?"

Lana sighed and showed her the damage. "A-At one point I got really angry and t-tried to defend myself back there, b-but I missed and accidentally punched the sidewalk." She sniffled a bit, though this definitely wasn't the first time she'd seen her own blood or felt the pain that came along with it. But this kind of scenario...now that was another story. "S-she tried t-to take C-Charles away…" Lana felt the urge to cry again, as she felt a couple of arms wrapping her around.

"She's gone now, Lana, nothing will happen to Charles." Lori assured. "Everything is going to be alright."

"W-why did she do this? I-I told her Charles was our dog."

Lori wanted to give her an answer, but sometimes there wasn't one. She could say the woman was crazy, but instead she just sighed. "Look, let's go home, and we'll take a better look at your hands, okay? If you want to wait a bit, it's literally fine as well."

"_Sniff, _y-yeah, I'm not really in the mood for the dog park anymore, and Charles doesn't seem to be either." Charles nodded his affirmation.

"Okay then, let's go." Lori said, but before they could go, a woman, different from before, called them. She had a bag in her hand, and her phone in the other.

"Hey, miss, you forgot your perfume and your phone!" She said, rather concerned.

They walked to her and Lori took the objects back. "Thank you, and sorry for leaving suddenly. There was a _situation_."

"Don't worry, we all understand. We saw it from the inside. Also, we've taken pictures of that woman, we'll report her to the cops."

"Thank you so much, ma'am."

"Yeah, she was insane!" Lana added in.

"Agreed, we saw it. Sorry for the inconvenience." She said. After that, the two girls began heading home.

The trip back was quite silent, as none of them were really in the mood to talk. They just walked through the city streets, Lori looking over Lana, and Lana looking over Charles. The dog happily walking besides Lana still put a happy face on the girl. And hoo boy, did _they _have a story to tell when they got back to the house.


End file.
